If the topic of cloud hasn’t come up at your association yet, it probably will. Given the cost savings, convenience, and flexibility the cloud offers, this is a trend that won’t be slowing down anytime soon. But are you ready to make the move? Here are 5 questions to ask yourself:
1. Are you concerned about IT security?
Most associations handle sensitive data and protecting this data is a high priority. If you are concerned about cybersecurity, viruses, hacking and other security threats, moving to the cloud gives you an additional layer of protection.
With the cloud you are able to relax, knowing that your virus protection and latest security updates and patches are all taken care of by your cloud provider. Your database is backed up daily and your system monitored on a proactive basis.
2. Do you need help meeting member expectations for 24/7 availability?
Member expectations for the capabilities and availability of your website are higher than they have ever been – they think your products section should work like Amazon’s, your website should recognize them, meeting registration forms should be pre-filled, and everything should be easy to use and accessible at all times, from every device.
If your AMS is down, your website won’t work properly, and your members won’t be able to do everything they need to. One of the core benefits of moving to cloud hosting is that you are able to deliver higher levels of availability, reliability, and quality of service.
3. Would you benefit from having increased technical staff and tech support?
One of the biggest reasons the cloud is appealing to associations is that you have access to more technical resources at a lower cost. When you shift the effort involved in maintaining your infrastructure to a cloud provider, you free your IT team for more strategic work.
You can also reduce the cost of maintaining technical certifications. With the increasing complexity of IT systems, it is difficult for most associations to justify the ongoing training and expense. When you move to the cloud, your cloud provider now shoulders that expense.
Moving to the cloud not only provides significant cost savings on your infrastructure, but the training, support, guidance and expertise received from your cloud provider is instrumental in ensuring your organization’s continual growth.
4. Are you having more IT headaches than you should?
With the cloud, routine IT tasks like updates, patches and fixes are handled by your cloud provider. Having someone else keep your infrastructure up-to-date provides security protection and helps eliminate many of your IT issues.
Using the cloud also gives you greater ability to keep up with a rapidly changing IT environment. Instant, unlimited storage is immediately available. You can scale servers whenever you need to, without paying for costly new equipment whenever you update your operating system or other infrastructure.
5. Do you have a teleworking initiative?
Whether your association is responding to requests for flexible work arrangements or trying to be more environmentally responsible, if you are implementing a teleworking plan you’ll want to make the cloud part of it.
Or maybe you simply have staff that travel frequently to conferences or other events.
If you need to give your staff the ability to access your AMS securely and safely, moving to the cloud is the right way to do it.
If you answered yes to any of the questions above, it may be time for you to evaluate migrating your association to the cloud. ISG Solutions is here to help every step of the way.
ISG Azure Cloud gives you all the benefits of moving to the cloud – flexibility, reliability, cost savings – and you are working with a cloud provider that has 25 years of experience serving the association community so you know your issues will be understood.
In addition, ISG offers a wide range of IT support services designed specifically for associations you can’t get from other cloud providers, such as report writing, website design, member database optimization, SQL scripting and custom programming.
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What’s next?
If you’d like more information on the cloud, have any questions or are interested in having a meeting regarding your association’s cloud-readiness please contact us at 301-519-3776 or sales@isgsolutions.com.